Day 52: School and Volleyball!

It was a really nice day today, weather-wise. The thing about it is, though, is that every day is pretty much the same temperature. It's usually in the mid-80s. Typically this time of year it rains at some point during the day, although it seems to happen more at night than during the day. My classroom doesn't get much of a breeze, so it gets a bit toasty in there. In fact, although I rarely sweat in Michigan, here it's a completely different story!


Tuesday, because of the new schedule, the first-graders were with me for a longer period of time. It actually felt as though they had time to process new learning. That was nice. Then I had the third- and fourth-graders for a longer time than any other day of the week, so we were able to do some things that are atypical as well! 


You may or may not remember, but the first-graders here still don't know their alphabet. So today we played an alphabet game. I pointed to a letter and if the student could say the name of the letter he or she was awarded a tally mark (they're pretty good at tally marks now!).  My top student had twelve tally marks. This is first grade and this is more than a month into school. This would NOT be a typical first grade classroom in the states. However, they have brought with them what they have learned so obviously we have some catching up to do.


The third- and fourth-graders learned today about an acrostic. Most of them struggle with expressing themselves in English, and all struggle BIG TIME with spelling in English, so I thought this would be a fun, creative, and motivating way for them to practice all of those skills, while being able to bring out their own personalities. Bear in mind that when I taught first grade in the States, ALL of my students did an acrostic at about this time of year about Fall (or Autumn). My students today had no clue even what an acrostic was! That was a shocker!


However, we brainstormed through it, I "thought out loud" with my own name, and they were able to come up with some pretty good ideas! I was very proud of them. The goal is for each student to produce an acrostic of his or her own name and make it into a work of art! We should be able to add to them on Thursday and Friday. So hopefully we'll have them all done in a week or so! (Think my first-graders will have their alphabet all learned by then?????)


After school Hannah worked with our Spanish teacher, Lizette, who is spending extra time with our girl so she can become a little bit fluent in the native language here. I went to the post office and bank, and picked up some groceries. Upon my return Hannah was ready to head for home. We then had a light supper followed by Hannah's volleyball practice. It is so nice that she can be involved in volleyball here. It's not of the caliber in the States, but she's learning some of the skills and is socializing with the girls, so that's great! I read a book while she was gone to prepare for tomorrow.


This evening we played Sequence, which is a game Abbie loaned to us. Hannah has really taken to it. I just hope it's not the only game we play from now on!


If you feel so inclined, I would really appreciate some prayers for dealing with the loneliness I'm feeling again now that Hope is gone. It's probably my biggest challenge. During the daytime I hear other people communicating fluently and I can't understand 90% of what they are saying. Although some days are better than others, I can truly say it is a difficult situation!


Thank You, God, for another beautiful day on this island. Thank You for the relationships Hannah is building and for the things I am learning!